Will gas prices hinder the recovery in Las Vegas?

12 May 2011

With the cost of gas on the increase it has hit Las Vegas pretty hard. The cost of gas has affected everything from the price of gas at the pump to the cost of an airline ticket to getting to Las Vegas. This makes analysts worried about the overall effect it will have on the recovery of the gaming business in this well known city of excesses.

Tourists to Las Vegas use their disposable money for the fun they will have gambling whilst they are visiting Las Vegas for their trips away from home. If their disposable income is reduced by the rising cost of gas then it will automatically affect their decision to visit the gaming rooms in Las Vegas.

Analysts believe that if the cost of gas remains level for the next few months it will encourage the visitor back to Las Vegas where they will want to spend more time and money at the resort. Should the cost of gas continue to increase however, then the affect this would have on the gaming industry in Las Vegas would be quite dramatic and certainly profits for the major casinos will continue to drop in the coming months.

Read the rest of this entry »

The 2011 Oxford Cambridge Boat Race The Course and River

26 March 2011

The 2011 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race is just over a month away, and if you want to watch the race on race day, you’ll need to know the course.

The course only stretches across a small part of the River Thames in London, 4 miles to be exact, and as it’s close to the sea the water is tidal there, which can sometimes make the race harder for the teams. The start line is in Putney, close to the Putney Bridge. You can catch buses 14, 22 and 74 from the centre of London to Putney, or the 220 Bus which goes via Putney Bridge. There is a rail station in Putney as well as a Putney Bridge and East Putney tube stations, so you can easily get there on race day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cheltenham World Hurdle 2011 Potential Winners

20 March 2011

The Cheltenham World Hurdle will be the fourth race of day three, and is by far the biggest race of the day. It is a three mile run and is a grade 1 hurdle race and allows horses over the age of 4 years.

For 2011, the horse which appears to be standing out with a very good chance of winning the title is Big Bucks, trained by Paul Nicholls. Big Bucks has always been a favourite for the Cheltenham Festival races, and won the World Hurdle at 2009 and 2010’s Cheltenham Festival events.

Big Bucks is now an eight year old, and very soon after the win of last year’s Cheltenham World Hurdle, he was already being marked as the favourite for 2011 - 12 months before the race. The trainer, Paul Nicholls is a champion trainer who has trained many of the successful horses in the UK.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Cheltenham Gold Cup

18 March 2011

The Cheltenham Gold Cup is a National Hunt chase race. It allows horses to enter who are age 5 and over. There are 22 fence obstacles over a distance of 5,331 metres. The race takes place at the annual Cheltenham National Hunt Festival in Prestbury Park, Cheltenham.  The Gold Cup race has always been one of the most exciting races, with the top horses and jockeys racing.

It was established in 1819 but at that time it was a flat race. This changed and it became a jump race in 1924. It has been a jump chase race every year since. The Gold Cup is the most prestigious of all of the National Hunt races, and in the past it has been dubbed the ‘Blue Riband’ of horse racing.

The Gold Cup has been canceled on a number of occasions, including 1931 due to frosty weather, 1937 due to flooding, and then again in 1943 and 1944 because of World War II. Then in 2001 after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in bovine animals across the UK, dubbed  ‘mad cow disease’, the Gold Cup was canceled once again.

Read the rest of this entry »

Preparing for Cheltenham Ladies Day

18 March 2011

Cheltenham Ladies Day is a wonderful event for women to join in with the horse races. It is also well known for the dress code of women sporting fancy hats and dresses or suits. SO what should you wear if you’re attending the Cheltenham Ladies Day event?

The event takes place in March, and British weather can be rather unpredictable at that time of year so it is difficult to judge whether to go for a dressed up look, or something more comfortable and warm, especially with prizes on offer for the best dressed ladies.

Many women go for extremely dressy hats and matching outfits, commonly dresses and even heeled shoes. Others opt for classy outfits with tweed or designer suits, covered with warm fur coats which would seem to be the safer option if you don’t want to catch a cold on the day, or spend the event shivering. So what you wear really depends on what you’ll be getting involved in. If you want to join in with the best dressed competitions and have a go at winning a prize for your outfit, you can opt for a strappy or well fitted dress, a stylish hat matching the colour of the dress along with a nice clutch bag and some sexy high heels. Beware though, as it won’t be easy walking about the grass with heels on.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cheltenham Race Types Explained

17 March 2011

At the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival you’ll see a wide variety of different types of race, but you may not fully understand what they all mean. So what are they?

Chase Horse Races

A chase is a kind of race which is run by horses over fences. In chases, the minimum fence height is set to 4.5 feet (just over 1.37m). The fences are fairly wide and are designed to look like box hedges. If a horse jumps incorrectly over chase fences, it is common to see them fall down. The distance of chase races can be anything from 2 miles to 4.5 miles. Famous chase races include the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the world renowned Grand National horse race.

Read the rest of this entry »

The History of Cheltenham National Hunt Festival

16 March 2011

The Cheltenham National Hunt Festival is an extremely well known and high class horse racing event, which takes place annually in Cheltenham in March. Today some of the finest British and Irish horses race against one another, and the event therefore attracts many affluent spectators. Many of the spectators are Irish due to the Irish horses racing and the fact that it often falls on or around St Patrick’s Day.

The official name of the festival is the ‘National Hunt Meeting’, and it started in 1860 at Market Harborough. At this time it was called the Grand National Hunt. Then in 1861 the event was held in Cheltenham for the first time. The following few years the National Hunt Meeting was held at various locations, before finally returning to Cheltenham again in 1904 for two years. After this time, the National Hunt Meeting was held in Warwick until 1910, and the following year it returned to Cheltenham where it has been held ever since.  Prestbury Park in Cheltenham is the grounds where the festival takes place every year.

In 1924, the Cheltenham Gold Cup began, which was the first championship race event. Three years later the Champion Hurdle was established, and then 32 years after this the Queen Mother Championship Chase was introduced. In 1972 the first Stayers Hurdle took place.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Bookmakers Top Choices for the Cheltenham Festival 2011

15 March 2011

The Cheltenham National Hunt Festival is just around the corner once more, and preparations are well under way. But who are the favourites for this year’s event? In this article we take a look at the bookie’s favourites for 2011.

The first day is the Supreme Novice’s Hurdle where the favourite is Cue Card. Cue Card has had an impressive record throughout 2010 and is now expected to win the Supreme Novice Hurdle on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival. Other favourites from this race are Zaidpour after odds were cut when Zaidpour made it 2-2 over the hurdles at the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle in December 2010. Hidden Universe is the next favourite for this race.

Also on the first day of the Cheltenham races will be the Arkle Trophy, William Hill Trophy, Champion Hurdle, Cross Country Chase, Dave Nicholson Mares Hurdle and the Centenary Novices Chase. The favourites for these retrospectively are Blazing Bailey, Binocular, Garde Champetre, Quevega and Quel Esprit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Key Players in the 2011 Cricket World Cup

19 February 2011

The 2011 Cricket World Cup is set to be a very exciting tournament indeed, with some fantastic players in the pickings. This year the Cricket World Cup will be held at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India.

As always, the Australians are pretty much the favourites to win this year’s world cup. Hussey is their left handed specialist batsman and is a real asset to the batting line-up so it’s certain he’ll do a good job as he always does.

Shane Watson is another great team member for the Aussie’s, with his excellent right-handed batting and fast medium bowling skills. Of course it’s also important to mention Mitchell Johnson who is a renowned fast bowler for Australia. His bowling attacks are second to none and he’s sure to give the opposition a run for their money when he’s in charge of the ball.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Contenders of the 2011 Cricket World Cup

18 February 2011

The largest world cricket championship is just around the corner. The contenders for this year are all very strong so it would seem it will be a good fight between them all. The Cricket World Cup 2011 is due to be the biggest sporting event of 2011, and it is anticipated that there will be approximately one billion spectators worldwide, the majority of which will be supporting India who are co-hosting this year’s event.  But who can win the title?

Australia are the clear leaders of international cricket. Their achievements are phenomenal. In the last 15 years  they have worked their way to the finals eveyr single year without fail and only ever been beat once in the finals. However this year, Australia look weaker than usual with some of the good players lost. They do on the other hand still have plenty of good players left on the team. This will be Ponting’s last world cup so he’s sure to put on a good show.

Read the rest of this entry »

2011 Cricket World Cup Venue Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

18 February 2011

The Wankhede Stadium is in the Indian city of Mumbai, and will be host to the 2011 Cricket World Cup.  The stadium was built after  a dispute between two other cricket grounds in India over ticket allocations. The stadium is named after a politician, SK Wankhede, who was the secretary of the Mumbai Cricket Association.

He instigated the build of the stadium, which was commissioned by the Mumbai Cricket Association. The building work was completed in 1975 just in time to host the final test between India and the West Indies. Since its erection, it has become the main cricket ground in Mumbai, taking over from Brabourne Stadium. The architect for the building of Wankhede Stadium was Shashi Prabhu.

The ICC approved Wankhede Stadium at the end of January as the host stadium after the Eden Gardens ground was ruled as inappropriate earlier. Wankhede Stadium has recently undergone extensive renovations in preparation for the 2011 World Cup.  The renovation has included a set of brand new seats, hard pitching, new toilets and better lighting.

Read the rest of this entry »

Australian Open Tennis Stars Rally for Relief To Help Flood Victims

30 January 2011

Many of the tennis players from the Australian Open 2011 gathered a day before the starts of the tournament  to raise money for the victims of Australia’s flood disaster. Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick,  Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Kim Clijsters and Sam Stosur  are among the popular stars who were involved.

Thousands of people in 43 towns across Australia have had to move away from their homes and others have died in the recent floods. The floods which originally caused havoc in Queensland are now also threatening the people of Victoria.

The fund raising event consisted of tennis matches where the world’s top tennis players played against one another in doubles. The group was first split into two teams, and they later split further into doubles matches, with one match even having 3 players on each side.

Read the rest of this entry »

Can Rafael Nadal Win The 2011 Australian Open?

27 January 2011

Rafael Nadal is ranked 1st in the world in the singles rankings, but can he win the Australian Open this year?

Rafael Nadal, known as ‘Rafa’, is close behind the heels of Rod Laver. If Rafa wins the Australian Open of 2011, he will have won four consecutive grand slams, and will be the first player after Laver to do so. He will also be the youngest player ever to have achieved it. But can he do it?

The only thing that is certain is that Rafa will have to fight hard to keep his number one title. He will have to triumph over some of the world’s top players to get there including Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Read the rest of this entry »

Odds Watch: The Bookmakers Opinion of the 2011 Australian Open

26 January 2011

Here we take a look at the 2011 Australian Open predictions in Melbourne.

Quarter One of the Australian Open 2011

It would seems that Rafael Nadal, currently raking 1st in the world, has a pretty easy path cut out to the semi-finals. The first quarter will be brimming with Spanish players that he has easily beaten in the past, including Lopez and Ferrer, as well as players that he should have a relatively easy time with in the first few matches such as Cilic and Youzhny.

A possible third round match against Marin Cilic may be a difficult one for him to grasp, but it’s unlikely that Rafa will trip up before he gets to the final four. Nadal is fevoured to be the semi finalist from this quarter.

Read the rest of this entry »

Life on the Tennis Tour: Pressure and Stress as the Australian Open Begins

25 January 2011

As the Australian Open begins in Melbourne, pressure is mounting for some of the key players.

Rafael Nadal no doubt carries the biggest pressure as he will be fighting to keep his place at the top. He is also attempting to hold all four Grand Slams at once, and if he succeeds, he’ll be only the third player ever to have done it.

Rod Laver, whom the arena at Melbourne Park was first named after, and Don Budge are the only two other players who have ever managed such a massive triumph. So of course this is a huge stress on Nadal as a victory will go down in history. And he’s only 24.

Read the rest of this entry »